Almost anything’s possible at Greta’s -- if it’s kosher

Where do you go in this burg when you feel like some sushi followed by a plate of Tunisian couscous and a monster mug of mint tea?

Why, a restaurant called Greta. Greta Cuisine Mediterraneenne, that is.

In keeping with its Melrose Avenue location, it’s what you could call shoestring stylish: etched glass and chrome, boxy folk-art Tunisian candle holders, no parking valet, ceiling tiles that could use a tweak or two. It has survived there since February, and the owner is about to remodel and make it look less shoe-stringy.

In effect, Greta is a French bistro with a Tunisian theme. You’re not limited to Tunisian dishes, however; you can get pastas, you can get grilled salmon, you can get steak with fries. Just don’t try to get them on Friday night: Greta is strictly kosher. It’s locked and bolted from Friday afternoon till well after sundown Saturday, and dairy foods never cross its threshold.

This is very likely the only Tunisian restaurant in the entire country that advertises “Shabbat to go” meals. (Considering how tight parking can get in this neighborhood, being closed on Friday night probably works out OK.)

Tunisian food can be spicy, but the homemade harissa sauce that Greta uses is rather mild; it wouldn’t unsettle the most sensitive Parisian palate.

Naturally, you can get the universal Tunisian snack brik (spelled “brick” on this menu). It started out as the Turkish borek, a small baked or fried pie something like a samosa, but in Tunisia the concept took an original turn.

Greta’s basic brik is a flat triangular packet made by folding the Tunisian equivalent of filo dough around a filling of mashed potatoes and frying it in olive oil. It’s surprisingly luscious.

The most famous brik, also available here, is brik a l’oeuf: a sheet of Tunisian filo folded over a raw egg. The resulting half-circle is fried just until the egg cooks -- call it a crunchy quesadilla with an egg sunny side up as filling. (Eat carefully, it’s still runny.)

Tuna galore

You can get brik a l’oeuf straight or with tuna and capers in it. Tuna, in fact, is one of the basic food groups on this menu, reflecting the fact that Tunisia has some of the richest fishing grounds in the Mediterranean. Beside sushi on Friday and Saturday, Greta always has several kinds of fish, cooked either by grilling or sauteeing.

It even has a sort of Tunisian tuna sandwich, spiked with olives, pickled peppers, preserved lemon peel, hard-boiled eggs and mild hot sauce -- in effect, it’s a salade nicoise in a French roll. Still another tuna sandwich is an appetizer called fricasse, described on the menu as fried bread. It turns out to be a chewy, nearly spherical bun stuffed with tuna, tomatoes, hard-boiled eggs and cucumbers (and not fried, so far as I can tell).

A bit of creativity was apparently required to keep the bistro side of the menu in the kosher column; the result is a sort of Jewish fusion cuisine. The tomato sauce on the spaghetti includes Tunisian merguez sausage (beef links flavored with fennel and a good dose of red pepper).

Pasta all’ amatriciana is made with pastrami -- cut rather thick and chewy, for my taste, although I found I ate this garlicky dish to the last bite. Needless to say, the steak Diane is fried in oil, rather than butter, so its mustardy sauce lacks a certain elegance.

No problem with the meat, though. All Greta’s steaks are tender and flavorful. And that merguez sausage is very tasty in a sandwich on a French roll smeared with harissa sauce.

There’s always a soup of the day, based on homemade chicken stock (instead of cream, one gets the feeling, as it might be in a French restaurant). One of the best I’ve had was a thin puree of acorn squash, sprinkled with an abstract pattern of peppery oil. It was so flavorful and sophisticated that it put to shame all the thick, porridge-y squash soups I’ve ever had.

At dessert time, Greta continues to walk a line between its bistro and Tunisian sides.

On the one hand, there’s arisa, not a hot sauce but a Tunisian cake full of almonds and pistachios, like a thick, chewy cookie lightly moistened with orange-scented syrup. On the other, there’s the egg-white foam zabayon, probably standing in for ice cream, and fondant, a sort of giant ultra-chocolaty brownie.

But at the end of the meal, one question still nags me: Why sushi? “It’s a Tunisian custom,” says owner Cedric Marmet. “We eat it on Friday, and couscous.”

Really? You eat sushi? “Well, fish,” he says with a diffident grin. Fish it is.

*

Greta Cuisine Mediterraneenne

Location: 7168 Melrose Ave., Los Angeles, (323) 954-0755

Price: Appetizers, $6 to $12; sandwiches, $7 to $12; entrees, $9 to $27; desserts, $5

Best dishes: Brik a l’oeuf, merguez sandwich, steak Diane, acorn squash soup

Details: Open for lunch, noon to 2:30 p.m., Sunday through Friday; for dinner 5 to 9:30 p.m., Sunday through Thursday; for dinner only, 7:30 to 9:30 p.m. Saturday. Closed Friday dinner and Saturday lunch. No alcohol. Street parking. All major credit cards.